2011

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Profiling the high-income Canadian

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What does it take to be among Canada’s richest people in terms of annual
income? It seems the number of millionaires increases every year, but a recent
study suggests the group is still fairly small.

Membership in the most exclusive group—the
richest one-hundredth of a percent (0.01%) comes with a hefty price tag: an
annual income of $2,833,000 or more.

You do not need to be making a million
dollars a year to be among the 237,000 Canadians who make up the richest
1% of the population, but it still requires a sizeable annual income: $181,000
or more. Joining the richest 5%—about 1.2 million Canadians—requires
an annual income of $89,000 or more.

People with Canada’s highest incomes share many characteristics. Most are men and most
are married, although the number of women in the top 5% increased from one in
seven in 1982 to one in four in 2004. Most rich Canadians are also aged 45 to
64; three out of five individuals in the top 0.01% are in this age group.

Almost half of the richest 1.2 million
Canadians live in Ontario. Quebec is home to 18%, followed by Alberta with 15%, and British Columbia with 13%. Canada’s richest also tend to reside in
its larger urban centres.

Incomes among the top 5% rose much faster than for the rest
of the Canadian population from 1992 to 2004. As income increases, so do the
taxes on that income. In 2004, the bottom 95% of the taxfiler population
received 75% of income and paid 64% of taxes, whereas the top 5% received 25%
of income and paid 36% of taxes.